Last day, WIAW, & Pesto Pasta

That’s right, today is my last day of Summer vacation and tomorrow I will be back at work. The kids don’t come back to school until the 27th, so it will be pretty easy going until then, but I will so miss my routine of pretty much doing whatever I want.

I already had my last hurrah this past weekend in San Antonio and today I have big plans to hit up 3 different grocery stores……yes, you heard that right—> 3! I really need to make a trip to Sprouts for protein powder, I need lots of stuff from Costco and Trader Joe’s is just right around the corner from Sprouts, so I might as well run in for a few of my favorites.

It’s Wednesday and that means it’s What I Ate Wednesday Tuesday! I didn’t realize the theme would be Summer staples until I went to the peas & crayons site this morning, but that works well for what I ate yesterday. I had two different meals with watermelon…..my VERY favorite Summer staple!

Breakfast was my normal cinnamon raisin Ezekiel toast (this time with strawberry jam), 4 egg whites and one egg. Pretty boring, I know, but still delicious!

For my pre-workout fuel I had 1/2 cup cottage cheese with Jamie Eason’s chocolate protein bars. These bars are super great snacks; not only because they taste kind of like chocolate cake, but also because they are low in calories and high in protein. Even better, they’re kid approved. You can find the recipe and a video here.

Workout was this leg KILLER!! If you want to change things up a bit in the gym and want your legs and butt to be feeling it in the morning, give this workout a try. I sure am feeling it this morning and I’m guessing tomorrow will be worse.

After my workout, I had my protein shake and this time in the form of a Watermelon-Banana Smoothie. Yummo! Into the blender went:

1 cup almond milk

1 cup chopped frozen watermelon

1 tbsp chia seeds

1 scoop vanilla protein powder (I use MRM.)

1/2 banana

about 1 cup of ice (I like my smoothies really slushy.)

1 stevia packet

A little later I couldn’t resist another small square of chocolate protein bar. I also had to have a piece of brown rice sushi that Landen begged me to buy. Not too bad for your grocery store variety.

a few Late July crackers on the side (These crackers taste just like Ritz, but they are organic and have no artificial ingredients, preservatives, or trans fat.)

The kids had gymnastics last night, so it was dinner on the run. We grabbed some Which Which. This salad doesn’t look all that exciting, but let me tell you; it was TASTY!! In the bowl was spinach, mushrooms, tomato, cucumber, caramelized onions, black olives, avocado, and black bean burger. I had just a bit of honey mustard (I didn’t need much because of the creamy avocado.)

And that was that for the day, except for my nightly cup of coffee while watching the Olympics. I’m enjoying the Olympics so much, but I have to say; they are keeping me up past my bedtime!

Now for the pesto pasta…..I call this Busy Mom’s Pesto Pasta because it is a super easy and very quick recipe. Landen says this is his VERY favorite thing I make. I usually serve mine over mixed greens, salad style, to make it a bit more figure-friendly.

Busy Mom’s Pesto Pasta

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Recipe Type: Entree

Author: Kim Lee @ hungryhealthygirl.com

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 10 mins

Total time: 20 mins

Serves: 6-8

There are a lot of variations of this recipe. Here’s my take on a super delicious, very quick and easy pesto pasta.

Ingredients

14-16 oz. box of bowtie pasta (I use Barilla’s.)

6-7.5 oz. jar of premade pesto (I use Delallo’s.)

6 oz. fat free crumbled feta

2 cups chicken pieces (I use a rotisserie chicken.)

1 cup grape tomatoes, halved

2.25 oz. can sliced black olives

Instructions

Cook pasta according to instructions on the box. Meanwhile prepare all other ingredients and place in a large bowl.

Once pasta is finished cooking, drain and reserve about 1 cup of pasta water.